Once it’s frozen shouldn’t it be the same consistency regardless of temperature?
In: Physics
Imagine a polymer – essentially, a plastic. These kind of materials are solid at room temperature. However, as temperature rises, they get more pliable, more easily bent, as if it’s melting without melting (turning into its liquid form)
The same goes for ice cream and most materials out there. The colder it gets, the stiffer they get.
This happens because temperature is a measure of molecules speed/energy. At a low temperature, they have less (thermal) energy and they vibrate less. It’s like they know it’s too cold and want to roll up in a blanket and stay still. These vibrations are what makes such materials mechanical problems.
Hope I made it somewhat clear!
If you push your finger into warm ice-cream, a certain amount of energy is expended to break enough ice-cream bonds so that ice cream can make space for your finger. Think of it as needing energy from your body heat or the energy you use to push down onto the ice-cream to become more liquid. However if the ice-cream is colder(has less energy and therefore stronger bonds), then more energy is required to break enough bonds, getting it to the state/temp where your finger can go into it.
The only difference between something hard and soft is that the harder thing requires more energy to reach a state where it’s shape can be changed.
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